


A Meeting on The Sprawl

by Hours_Gone_By



Series: Trope Bingo Round Thirteen [5]
Category: Dead Space (Video Games), The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: (for Dead Space), (for Transformers), Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Bars and Pubs, Camp Nanowrimo, Chance Meetings, Community: intoabar, Community: trope_bingo, Conversations, Energon, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Series, Pre-Series, Trope Bingo Round 13, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 03:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20302978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hours_Gone_By/pseuds/Hours_Gone_By
Summary: Jazz walks into a bar on The Sprawl and meets Doctor Nicole Brennan, about to ship out on the USG Ishimura. Jazz thinks the system she's headed to is bad news but can't quite place why.





	A Meeting on The Sprawl

**Author's Note:**

> Written for:
> 
>   * [Trope Bingo](https://www.trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org) [Round 13](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TropeBingo_RoundThirteen/profile) (Prompt: AU: Fusion), 
>   * [A Ficathon Goes Into a Bar](https://intoabar.dreamwidth.org) 2019 (Assignment: Jazz goes into a bar and meets…Nicole Brennan (Dead Space)!
>   * [Camp Nanowrimo](http://campnanowrimo.org) July 2019.

Jazz walked into Decamp's, one of the larger bars on The Sprawl, and looked around approvingly. It was high enough to fit even the taller Cybertronians but obviously designed with species of different sizes in mind. The bigger tables were scattered around the edges, and the walls were covered in balconies of differing depths and sizes. That would make it much easier to talk to someone significantly shorter, though Jazz had never had as much trouble with that as, say, Skyfire. Jazz was too early for the dance floor to have gotten going, but that was fine. Gave him time to take in the atmosphere and get a glass or two of whatever they had for high grade.

There were always ships coming and going at The Sprawl, but it was still early evening, so the crowd in the bar was small. Jazz got his drink, a decent enough Engex for a human-run place, and looked around for someone to join. A blonde human woman sitting on one of the balconies that put her around Jazz's optic-line when he was sitting was the only one on her own so Jazz wandered over.

"Hey there," he said with a smile, "I'm Jazz. Mind if I join you?"

"Please," the woman said, putting down her tablet and sounding grateful. "I've been trying to get through this study, and I could really use the distraction!"

"Happy to oblige," Jazz said, sitting down next to her. "I'm Jazz."

"Nicole Brennan," she introduced herself. "I'm just killing some time till I have to board the ship. I'm the Senior Medical Officer aboard the USG _Ishimura_."

Jazz didn't know each and every EarthGov ship, but he recognized the name Ishimura since it had been active for a while by human standards. "The _Ishimura_, huh? That's a planet cracker, right?"

"That's right. We're heading out to the Cygnus system," Nicole told him. "Do you know it? Or – should I not ask?"

The war might have ended five hundred years ago, but it was still nice to know people were trying to be sensitive about it. 'Course that might be because Earth had had its own share of disasters. Jazz hadn't stopped missing New York, though not as much as Tracks, who'd lived there for a couple of vorn after the war finally came to an end.

"Nah, we never had a front out in the Cygnus system," Jazz reassured her. "Might've been a few ships that passed through but no outposts and no major battles."

Doctor Brennan was an officer, and so she should know that the Cybertronian government had given intel to EarthGov and CEC about what to avoid if they didn't want to trigger nasty traps. But it never hurt to hear it over again. As for the Cygnus system, well, even now that they had the time and luxury to resume exploration Cybertronians rarely went near it. The ones that did would return with strange stories. Strange enough that even the resource-starved remnants of the Decepticons didn't seem to be tempted by the mineral-rich worlds out that way.

Jazz knew a little bit about the Cygnus system. Anyone who went out that way tended to come back with weird stories. He also knew there was an illegal human colony out that way. Cybertron left it alone because, quite frankly, they still weren't welcome in alien affairs, even when the aliens were close allies like humans.

"Cygnus, yeah," he said casually. "Seem to remember hearing about something happening out there, way back in the 2300s. Planet named Aegis VII?"

Nicole shook her head. "I don’t know. Besides, I'm sure the CEC sent someone to check and make sure everything was okay. There wasn't anything about an event or danger in the mission briefing."

Jazz, who had kept a lot of vital info out of briefings in his time, knew better. Still, his info on Aegis VII was pretty much 'something went bad, humans abandoned the system.' He had a feeling it had been some kind of experiment. Although, there was that colony out there. Illegal or not, if Aegis VII were super dangerous, someone would have to have noticed by now. Hopefully.

"Guess not," he agreed neutrally. "Can't hurt to be careful, though."

"Well, we've got enough power to crack open a planet, so I'd say we're safe from anything smaller than a moon coming after us," Nicole joked.

"Sounds about right," Jazz said. "But one thing I've learned is you should always be careful about the weird stuff. It'll get you just when you think you're safe. Always pay attention to your feelings."

"I'll be careful," she promised. "So, what are you doing aboard The Sprawl?"

The conversation moved away from the topic of Aegis VI, and Jazz didn't get a chance to get back to it for a couple of Earth days. There wasn't a whole lot about it in Earth's own database but when he got into the Cybertronian one, which included transmissions from the original Aegis colonists he got a bad, bad feeling. The kind he got right before a mission went, often lethally, sideways.

"Oh, frag."


End file.
